MTSU history professor Janice M. Leone and the colleagues whose work she edited in Middle Tennessee State University: A Centennial Legacy joined the University in celebrating the book’s release at a special reception on Nov. 29.

The free public event was held in Cantrell Hall in the Tom Jackson Building on campus.

In 2008, University Honors College Dean John Vile encouraged the college to participate in MTSU’s upcoming Centennial Celebration.

Leone, who is associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts, worked with Honors Associate Dean Scott Carnicom to develop the fall 2009 Honors Lecture Series , “Blue Raider Milestones: Approaching the Centennial.”

Those nine lectures became original essays and, paired with three new essays, became the 12 chapters of A Centennial Legacy.

Current and retired MTSU history faculty are the essayists included in the book’s 302 pages, along with emeritus professor of economics Dr. Reuben Kyle; John Lodl, Rutherford County Archives director; history graduate student Jordan Kirkman; and former Honors Dean Phil Mathis.

MTSU history professor Janice M. Leone and the colleagues whose work she edited in Middle Tennessee State University: A Centennial Legacy joined the University in celebrating the book’s release at a special reception on Nov. 29.

The free public event was held in Cantrell Hall in the Tom Jackson Building on campus.

In 2008, University Honors College Dean John Vile encouraged the college to participate in MTSU’s upcoming Centennial Celebration.

Leone, who is associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts, worked with Honors Associate Dean Scott Carnicom to develop the fall 2009 Honors Lecture Series , “Blue Raider Milestones: Approaching the Centennial.”

Those nine lectures became original essays and, paired with three new essays, became the 12 chapters of A Centennial Legacy.

Current and retired MTSU history faculty are the essayists included in the book’s 302 pages, along with emeritus professor of economics Dr. Reuben Kyle; John Lodl, Rutherford County Archives director; history graduate student Jordan Kirkman; and former Honors Dean Phil Mathis.

Dr. Charles “Chuck” Higgins will discuss “Juno to Jupiter” during the fall semester’s final First Friday Star Party at MTSU on Friday, Dec. 2.

The star party will begin at 6:30 p.m. in Wiser-Patten Science Hall Room 102. After the lecture, weather permitting, there will be an outdoor telescope-observation opportunity for participants.

The Juno spacecraft is a NASA New Frontiers mission to Jupiter. Launched Aug. 5 from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Brevard County, Fla., Juno is expected to arrive at our solar system’s largest planet around July 4, 2016.

It will travel about 1,740 million miles. Instruments aboard Juno will take thermal radiation measurements from within Jupiter’s atmosphere and collect other data. The mission, expected to end in October 2017, will include the spacecraft completing 33 orbits before being de-orbited and crashing into the planet.

Higgins is an associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and has been at MTSU since 2001.

Along with MTSU Space Grant coordinator Mark Abolins, Higgins’ most recent research grant study has been “Analysis of Jupiter’s Radio Emission” using the Voyager, Galileo and Cassini spacecrafts as part of the Tennessee Space Grant Consortium since 2006.

First Friday Star Parties are open to the general public as well as MTSU students, faculty and staff, and children are welcome. Free parking is available beginning at 4:30 p.m. behind Wiser-Patten only on Star Party Fridays.

For more information, call Higgins at 615-898-5946 or Dr. Eric Klumpe at 615-898-2483.

The spring 2012 schedule for First Friday Star Parties will be announced early next year.

High-school seniors planning to attend MTSU in fall 2012 who want priority consideration for major scholarships need to apply by Thursday, Dec. 1, University officials said.

“Making application to MTSU by the Dec. 1 deadline is necessary to be eligible for priority scholarship consideration,” said David Cicotello, associate vice provost for admissions and enrollment services.

David Cicotello

“The earlier a student submits an application, the sooner an admission decision is made,” Cicotello added. “The college-selection process is less stressful when application activity happens earlier in the senior year rather than later.”

Meeting the Dec. 1 deadline will help outstanding students to be considered for National Merit/Achievement, Chancellor, Presidential, Academic Service, Valedictorian/Salutatorian, Provost and International Baccalaureate scholarships. The yearly monetary awards range from the $1,000 International Baccalaureate scholarship to the $6,000 National Merit/Achievement gift.

The University Honors College’s Buchanan Fellowship, which is the most coveted scholarship, also has a Dec. 1 deadline.

Scholarship considerations primarily are based on high-achieving students’ grade-point averages and ACT/SAT scores.

Other scholarships at MTSU, including the DREAM and Foundation awards, have a Feb. 15 deadline. Departmental scholarships generally have a Feb. 15 deadline, but they can vary.

Prospective students who apply between Dec. 2 and Feb. 15 may not receive a major scholarship, officials cautioned.

“While we may be able to award scholarships to late applicants, we never can guarantee this,” said Bonnie McCarty, assistant director of scholarships in the Scholarship Office.

“Students who qualify for academic scholarships must apply for admission by Dec. 1 to have any guarantee that they will receive the scholarship for which they are eligible.”

Prospective scholarship recipients must submit an admissions application with a $25 fee), a high-school transcript and ACT/SAT scores to be considered.

The MTSU Foundation recently celebrated its golden anniversary with 140 past and present board members, including trustees and past Foundation presidents, as well as University officials and other invited guests attending.

The Nov. 18 dinner at the Embassy Suites Murfreesboro Hotel and Conference Center was a prelude to a Nov. 19 board meeting in the new College of Education Building. It featured remarks from MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee and Murray Martin, a 1975 MTSU alumna and current Foundation president.

“The Foundation’s role and the philanthropic dollars that come to the Foundation are critically important,” McPhee told the group. “We’ve made incredible progress. The MTSU Foundation received more than $8.5 million in gifts this year, and today we are generating more than $1.25 million in endowment income annually.

“This organization always has kept student support at the top of its priorities. And while endowment income and gifts to the MTSU Foundation now support more than 1,000 scholarships and student awards annually, the board now helps secure gifts that are having an impact on our entire campus.”

Martin shared the history of the Foundation from its establishment as the Middle Tennessee State College Loan, Scholarship and Development Foundation to its current status.

The Foundation has a current endowment of more than $37.5 million and total assets of more than $60 million, she said. It has raised more than $133 million since its inception in 1961.

“Tonight, we’re here to celebrate—to celebrate our heritage, to celebrate our success and to celebrate our future,” Martin said. “But we’re also here to say thank-you to each one of you for your hard work, your personal commitments of time and resources, and for the many things you do each day to help make MTSU a special place.”

Martin recognized former MTSU President Sam Ingram and his wife, Lynette, and National Alumni Association President Brent Campbell (’02) and his wife, Tammy. Also acknowledged were new trustees John Harris of Sorrento, Fla.; and Donald McDonald (’63), Dr. Sandy Neal (’76, ’77), Kathy Ryan, Wren Jones and Joe Klingenmeyer, all from Murfreesboro.

Old Main Society members, who have donated $100,000 or more to the Foundation, also were acknowledged, though not all were able to attend. They included Robert (’73, ’00) and Susanne Adams; Fred (’72) and Cindy Adams (’81); Dr. Walter (’78) and Denise (’81) Chitwood; George (’57) and Charlotte (’58) Gardner; Donald (’63) and Frances McDonald; Don and Carolyn (’64) Midgett; Bill (’68) and Linda Mooningham; Liz Rhea (’55); Ross (’55) and Eva Mae (’81, ’90) Spielman; and Don (’64) and Hanna (’64) Witherspoon. All are from Murfreesboro except the Midgetts, who live in Tullahoma, Tenn., and the Mooninghams, who live in Old Hickory.

Event attendees were entertained by “some of the beneficiaries of the private support given to the Foundation,” Martin said. Under the direction of Angela Tipps, an assistant professor in the MTSU School of Music, the 30-member Women’s Chorale performed five songs.

The MTSU Foundation was established in 1961 as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization to receive property or gifts and manage them independently on behalf of the University. All contributions, donations, gifts or bequests of personal or real property to the University must be made through the Foundation, except in the case of research grants and contracts. This keeps private gifts separate from state funds and allows greater flexibility in the use of those gifts.

The Foundation is managed by a volunteer Board of Trustees and is staffed by University employees. Joe Bales, vice president for Development and University Relations, serves as executive director of the Foundation.

The Foundation is housed in the Wood-Stegall Center, named for the late Randolph C. “Randy” Wood (’41) and Whitney Stegall (’37), two of the original founders of the Foundation. For more information, visit www.mtsu.edu/development.

Dr. Simon Zagorski-Thomas, an expert on the art and implications of recording technology, will visit MTSU on Tuesday, Dec. 6, for a special lecture, “Playing to an Empty Room: Performance, Recording and Musicology.”

Dr. Simon Zagorski-Thomas

The free public event is scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m. in MTSU’s Center for Popular Music, located in Room 140 of the Bragg Mass Communication Building on campus.

It’s sponsored by the CPM in co-sponsorship with the University’s Department of Recording Industry and the School of Music.

Zagorski-Thomas is a senior lecturer in music technology at the London College of Music at the University of West London. He also chairs of the Association for the Study of the Art of Record Production and is the director of the Art of Record Production Conference.

Dr. Dale Cockrell, director of the CPM, noted that musicology has traditionally addressed “the score” as its primary text, but that approach tends to marginalize many musical forms and ignore performance and interpretation, as well as the fact that recorded music is now a primary form of listening and engagement.

Zagorski-Thomas’s lecture will study how the recording process has affected and is in turn affected by performance, Cockrell said. The guest will address how artists have learned to perform without an audience and the changes in the collaborative process of editing and producing, even asking who “owns” such a performance.

For more information about this special lecture, contact Cockrell at 615-898-2449 or dale.cockrell@mtsu.edu or visitpopmusic.mtsu.edu.

Members of MTSU’s Department of Theatre and Dance are dusting off their dancing shoes to wow audiences with the Dance Theatre Fall Concert, set Dec. 1-3 in the Tucker Theatre.

Performances are set at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.

This nationally recognized program, which focuses on research and creative activity by faculty and students, is bringing the fall 2011 season to a close with the Fall Concert. Performances will feature a variety of genres ranging from modern to contemporary ballet and everything in between, organizers say.

MTSU faculty, guest artists and students have all contributed to the event, and two pieces choreographed by Kim Neal Nofsinger, director of dance at MTSU, will be featured. Nofsinger’s works explore the beauty and natural instincts of migrations among animals in addition to darkening discussions relating to the holocausts and genocides.

General-admission tickets for the Dance Theatre Fall Concert are $10 for adults and $5 for children up to 12th grade, as well as $5 for MTSU staff. MTSU students will be admitted free with a valid student ID.

Tickets may be purchased online at www.mtsu.edu/tuckertheatre via the “Purchase Tickets” button on the left toolbar. They also will be available at the door before each performance.

The MTSU Concert Chorale and Middle Tennessee Choral Society will partner once again to create the memorable music of Handel’s “Messiah” for the community Dec. 4 and 5.

Concerts are scheduled at 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 4, and at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 5, in Hinton Music Hall inside MTSU’s Wright Music Building. The event is part of the University’s Centennial Celebration.

In addition to “Messiah,” the concert will feature the MTSU Women’s Chorale performing a portion of Benjamin Britten’s “Ceremony of Carols.”

“This is my 27th year of conducting the ‘Messiah’ for MTSU and the Rutherford County area,” says Dr. Raphael Bundage, director of choral studies at MTSU and conductor for the Middle Tennessee Choral Society.

“I want to particularly thank the MTSU Choral Society for their annual support of this event over the last 27 years.”

Bundage adds that the choral groups, which number about 150 members, will perform “the Christmas portion of the ‘Messiah,’” which makes the work last about an hour.

Advanced vocal majors from MTSU will serve as soloists, the director says, noting that there are approximately 20 soloists over the two nights of performances.

The “Messiah” chamber orchestra comprises professional musicians from the Nashville area and MTSU faculty members Angela Tipps on organ and Pat Ward on harpsichord.

Tickets for each of the Dec. 4 and 5 performances are $10 for general admission and $5 for non-MTSU students. MTSU faculty, staff and students will be admitted free with valid IDs, and senior citizens can receive discounted prices.

Tickets will be available at the door one hour before each performance.

For more MTSU School of Music concert information, call 615-898-2493 or visit www.mtsumusic.com and click on the “Concert Calendar” link.

Middle Tennessee State University, in its educational programs and activities involving students and employees, does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, or age. Furthermore, the university does not discriminate against veterans or individuals with disabilities.